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Monday, May 13, 2013

Former Gulf Cartel Leader Gets 35 Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking

WASHINGTON
– The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that Aurelio Cano Flores,
a Mexican national and high ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, was sentenced
today to serve 35 years in prison for conspiring to import multi-ton quantities
of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

Cano
Flores, 40, aka “Yankee” and “Yeyo,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge
Barbara J. Rothstein in the District of Columbia.In addition to his prison term, Cano Flores
was ordered to forfeit $15 billion in drug proceeds as part of a money
judgment.At a post-trial hearing, the
United States proved that from 2000 to 2010, the Gulf Cartel distributed in
excess of 1.4 million kilograms of cocaine and 8,000 metric tons of marijuana.The money judgment represents the gross
receipts of the Gulf Cartel’s drug sales into the United States from its
principal distribution centers located along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“DEA
and its partners use every law enforcement tool possible to bring to justice
drug cartel leaders and facilitators who inflict damage on both sides of the
border,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.“Aurelio Cano-Flores used his position as a
Mexican police officer to help one of the most violent and brutal drug
trafficking organizations in the world bring vast amounts of drugs into the
United States.Like many other cartel
leaders, he posed a threat to the citizens of both the United States and
Mexico.We are confident and pleased
that justice was served today by the pronouncement of his lengthy U.S. prison
sentence."

“For
over a decade, Aurelio Cano Flores worked with some of the most dangerous
criminals in the world to import massive quantities of cocaine and marijuana
into the United States,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili
Raman.“As a leader of the Gulf Cartel,
one of the most notorious criminal enterprises in Mexico or the United States,
he endangered the lives of innocent people on both sides of the border.As a result of today’s sentencing, he will
spend 35 years in federal prison as punishment for his crimes.”

Following
a trial that lasted over two weeks, Cano Flores was convicted by a federal jury
on Feb. 26, 2013, of one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or
more of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, knowing and intending
the substances would be unlawfully imported into the United States.

Cano
Flores was one of 19 defendants charged in a superseding indictment on Nov. 4,
2010, with drug trafficking offenses.He
was extradited to the United States from Mexico in August 2011 and was ordered
detained in federal custody pending trial.

Evidence
presented at trial included dozens of lawfully intercepted telephone
conversations between Cano Flores and other leaders of the Gulf Cartel, as well
as testimony from previously convicted Cartel members.According to the trial evidence, Cano Flores
began working for the Gulf Cartel in approximately 2001, while he was serving
as a police officer in Mexico.During
his time as a police officer, Cano Flores recruited others into the Gulf
Cartel, collected drug money and escorted large shipments of cartel drugs to
the U.S. border.

Cano
Flores ultimately rose through the ranks of the Gulf Cartel to become a major
transporter of narcotics within Mexico to the U.S. border and became the
Cartel’s top representative in the important border town of Los Guerra,
Tamaulipas, Mexico.As the “plaza boss”
for Los Guerra, Cano Flores oversaw the mass distribution of cocaine and
marijuana into the United States on a daily basis.Testimony established that between 2000 and
2010, the Gulf Cartel grew from an organization of only 100 members controlling
three border towns to an organization of 25,000 people controlling the drug
trade over approximately half of Mexico.As established during the trial, the means and methods of this
conspiracy included corruption, murder, kidnapping and intimidation.

The
case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Darrin McCullough and Sean Torriente of
the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section.The Criminal Division’s Office of
International Affairs provided significant assistance in the provisional arrest
and extradition of Cano Flores, and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering
Section provided assistance at sentencing.The investigation in this case was led by the DEA Houston Field
Division’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force and the DEA Bilateral
Investigation Unit.The case was part of
the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force’s Operation “Day of
Reckoning.”